


For Every Bird a Nest

by delcatty



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesia, Angst, Betrayal, Brother-Sister Relationships, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Families of Choice, Gen, Language of Flowers, On the Run
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-28
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-04-01 16:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4026532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delcatty/pseuds/delcatty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hinami cried every time her brother left the house.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Every Bird a Nest

The last time Hinami saw her brother he was smiling. She supposed that it was his way of making sure she wouldn’t worry. (Years after that last meeting she wondered how he could have been so naïve.) She worried constantly during the months spent in the little apartment her flower man had bought them. Every time one of them would leave the house she would worry. 

Banjou would leave with Ichimi, Jiro, and Sante to hunt for food – because Kaneki was busy eating other ghouls and trying to keep it from her, and he would never let Hinami eat something that Tsukiyama prepared – and Hinami would curl up under her covers and wait until they came back, tired and bloodied, but alive with packs of fresh meat. 

Tsukiyama would wave goodbye at the end of the day and go to wherever he was staying – far away from them, yet it never helped her nerves as she always felt safer with another person to protect her brother – and Hinami would feel her gut clench, wondering if he wouldn’t come home like her father did. But Tsukiyama always returned with a smile, bearing bouquets of fresh daffodils, purple hyacinths, and red tulips. He would swoop her around when Kaneki wasn’t looking and promise to take her shopping when he could. 

Her brother was the worst because Hinami loved her brother, and in some ways he was the only one she had left. There was Banjou and Tsukiyama – and she knew she’d always have a place at Anteiku with Touka – but this was her brother. 

He was the person who protected her when her mother was slaughtered feet away. He took her under his wing and taught her about his favourite books. He taught her the ways he dealt with his own mother’s death when she would wake up crying, the sound of the white haired investigator’s voice fresh in her nightmares. Hinami cried every time Kaneki left the house. 

Hinami had cried when she rang the phone number Takatsuki Sen gave her. She cried when she met the author at a local café, and she cried when she went with her instead of returning to the makeshift base Banjou had set up for them. She cried until Takatsuki had enough: 

“Do you remember what I told you, Hina?” she asked slowly. Coldly, nothing like how she was the first time she reached out to her in the cosy little café her poor flower man had taken her to. “If you stay the same as you are now, you may not be able to save your brother.” 

Hinami didn’t cry when she was taken to her new room. It wouldn’t help anyone, let alone her brother. But that didn’t mean she stopped worrying. She always worried. Even when Anteiku collapsed, when Touka and Yomo went underground for half a year, when Banjou and Ichimi, Jiro, and Sante disappeared from Aogiri’s radar. When everyone left because she had left first. 

Hinami continued to worry about Kaneki. 

— 

Eto caught her in the surveillance room; packing up after Ayato had taken Torso to be fitted with a mask and cloak. 

“This’ll be a big mission,” Eto sang as she entered the room. “Do you think you will be able to act professionally, Hina?” She tilted her head childishly. Hinami hated her. 

“Of course,” Hinami replied as she continued to clean up. “Do you doubt me?” 

“No.” Eto smiled. “But Big Madam is an important client of ours, and has a lot of sway in our world. It wouldn’t be in Aogiri’s best interests to betray her.” 

Hinami stopped and looked at Eto eye to eye. “I’m dedicated, I promise. I wouldn’t do anything to harm the Tree.” 

“But he’ll be there, won’t he?” Eto asked cruelly. “Your precious big brother? Although I suppose he wouldn’t answer to that anymore. What does he go by now?” 

Hinami was well aware that Eto knew exactly who Kaneki thought he was, and despised her a little bit more for pretending she didn’t. 

“Sasaki Haise,” Hinami replied softly. 

“That’s it!” the older woman exclaimed. “Such a strange name, but I guess it fits someone like him, huh?” Eto sighed and shook her head as Hinami stayed silent. “I’m not trying to be mean, Hina, you know that. I just need to make sure you understand your purpose on this mission.” She waited until Hinami nodded in understanding. “You’re not to contact the CCG investigator Sasaki Haise. You’re to oversee the proceedings, and if an altercation were to happen, let Ayato handle it.” 

Hinami bit her lip and felt the blood well up in her mouth. Eto looked at her curiously as a trickle of blood ran down her chin. After a moment, Eto picked up the trail of blood with her thumb before sticking it into her mouth. 

“ _Okay_ , Hina?” She spoke around the digit. 

“Of course,” Hinami repeated back to her superior quickly. “I’ll stay away.” 

Eto observed her closely for a few moments longer before smiling and turning away. “Thank you, Hina! I knew I could count on you!” she said as she left the room. 

Hinami rubbed at her chin and looked down at the blood on her hand. She brought it to her mouth and cringed. She never could palate the taste of her own kind. 

— 

“Are you alright?” 

Hinami lifted her head towards Ayato and nodded. 

“Are you sure? You’re very quiet,” he said lowly and reached his hand out to her before he twined their fingers together between the folds of their cloaks. 

“Just concentrating,” she murmured back to him and squeezed his hand. Her mask gave her minimal eyesight – just enough to tell who was who up close – but it enhanced her already excellent hearing and sense of smell. She was doing her assigned job at the auction, which was very limited surveillance, but her partners were making it exceedingly difficult. Between Ayato’s questions and Torso’s twitching she could hardly pick out any voice in the room. “I’m fine.” 

Although she couldn’t see it, she could practically feel Ayato’s frown hidden by his own mask. 

“Tell me if you need help,” he said back, and she could feel Torso nodding along. 

“I’ll be okay,” she reassured again, with a hint of steel to her voice and let go of his hand. “Forget about whatever Eto told you. I’m not going to throw away the mission.” 

Ayato sighed, but didn’t say anything else. 

The auction was as disgraceful as usual with the usual theatrics from the clowns and the bidders. Big Madam in particular was being acutely uncouth that night, although Hinami had never been able to tolerate her company for very long regardless. 

“Ayato,” she murmured as she felt a shift backstage, different to the usual hustle of reluctant merchandise. 

“Something wrong?” he asked quickly. 

“Something feels kind of…off,” Hinami said. 

The one-eyed ghoul shoved onto stage was a surprise: a painful one. 

As the auction went to hell, Hinami couldn’t help but think about who was there: her precious people who were once again in the firing line. 

— 

Hinami heard the crackle of the speaker system flare with a screech, then felt the pit of her stomach drop as Takizawa’s – as _Owl’s_ – voice echoed out through the buildings. 

She heard his twisted words and cringed as the screams of Sasaki Haise rang for everyone to hear. The sound pierced her already sensitive ears, scraped over her nerve endings, and made her eyes water. 

She resolved to not answer the man who pretended to be him, until she heard it: _his_ screams. Distinctive, at a higher pitch still tinged with youth. Close to Sasaki Haise’s, but not quite. Hinami could pick out her brother’s voice from an army of one million. 

The last thing she heard from her earpiece was Ayato swearing at her, telling her to drop everything and regroup with him, before she shut it off in favour of pulling her brother closer, to keep him safe. 

She felt her sharp kagune burst out from her back. She wasn’t going to cry this time even though she wanted to. 

— 

Haise closed his eyes as he felt his blood leave his body. He fell into soft, waiting arms. He smelled sunflowers. Kaneki woke up. Hinami’s brother looked up at her, and she didn’t want to cry anymore. 

— 

“Rabbit, report in.” Eto’s usually childish voice was low and angry over the communicator. “Where is Yotsume?” 

Ayato cringed under his mask at the sound of Hinami’s codename. A useless codename at that – he’d never been able to remember it. He never even tried. 

“ _Rabbit_ ,” Eto said again with more force. “Report!” 

Ayato considered lying to her. Perhaps she wouldn’t know if he messed up the truth a little bit, pretended he had seen something different, that he hadn’t heard her crying in happiness not ten minutes ago. Ten minutes ago, before she switched off her communicator. Thirty minutes after she stopped talking to him altogether. 

“Yotsume has gone AWOL,” he said between gritted teeth. “Her and the CCG agent Sasaki Haise have escaped.” 

**Author's Note:**

> i have ideas about continuing this but i'm not sure if i have to motivation to, so for now it's complete.
> 
> title is from a poem of the same name by emily dickinson.
> 
> \+ flowers have meanings.


End file.
